Would You Trade Westburg for Luzardo or Cease?

[sportsfan8703]

Reasons why it makes sense,

- SS Gunnar, Mayo 3B, Holliday 2B

- Having Westburg as the 4th IF is a waste of his value.

- Westburg had a good/decent MLB debut and his value is high 

- Urías, and Mateo, are both reserve options with team control through 2025.

- Holliday can play SS if need be

- Gunnar can play 3B if need be

- We have Norby and Castillo in AAA

- We have 3B Horvath and 3B Wagner in AA. Both were high draft picks. 

- We have the #22 and #32 picks in the draft to restock the SS/2B depth

[Spy Fox]

It depends on how much more is required. Would I include him in a deal? Sure. 

[RZNJ]

I assume you mean in a package for one of those pitchers.  Of course, the answer is yes depending on the rest of the package but Westburg is not untouchable the way Mayo, Holliday, and Basallo are.

[dystopia]

Yes for Luzardo

No for Cease

[forphase1]

22 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Reasons why it makes sense,

- SS Gunnar, Mayo 3B, Holliday 2B

- Having Westburg as the 4th IF is a waste of his value.

- Westburg had a good/decent MLB debut and his value is high 

- Urías, and Mateo, are both reserve options with team control through 2025.

- Holliday can play SS if need be

- Gunnar can play 3B if need be

- We have Norby and Castillo in AAA

- We have 3B Horvath and 3B Wagner in AA. Both were high draft picks. 

- We have the #22 and #32 picks in the draft to restock the SS/2B depth

No.   Neither Mayo or Holiday will be on the Opening Day roster,  so if you trade Westburg we are stuck playing Urias/Mateo much more than we should.   We need Westburg this year... maybe we don't in 2025, but we need him now.  

[Frobby]

17 minutes ago, Spy Fox said:

It depends on how much more is required. Would I include him in a deal? Sure. 

Exactly.  

[interloper]

At this point, yeah. Altho I think you can get by with just signing Lorenzen and flipping Norby+ for some relief help.

[wildbillhiccup]

For Luzardo, I'd be willing to include Westburg in the package. For Cease, probably not. My guess is the White Sox are probably looking for younger prospectsr anyway. Westburg turns 25 tomorrow. 

[DirtyBird]

A bunch of chicken littles around here.

[Sports Guy]

I mean I guess but it depends on the rest of the deal.  I didn’t feel we could trade both Ortiz abs Westburg this offseason and I don’t feel confident that our best defensive lineup would be Holliday at second and Mayo at third and I’m not confident they get Mayo up here quick enough.

So that means a whole lot of Urias and while I like Urias as a UTI guy, I don’t really want him as a starter.

If Norby could play second, that would help some.

[sportsfan8703]

6 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

A bunch of chicken littles around here.

Holliday and Mayo are basically ready. Where do you play them?  You don’t want Westburg in a reserve role. That’s a role that Urias and Mateo should fill. Why mess around with Mayo in RF when Cowser and Kjerstad can fill that role. 

After nine days of the season, why have Westburg on the bench and I guess we’d DFA Urias or Mateo?  Why?  Why not maximize the value of our resources and trade Westburg in a package for a SP?

Then we still have depth this year with Gunnar, Holliday, Mayo, Urias, and Mateo. Except Mayo, all of them could cover the all three of 3B, SS, and 2B. We’d have depth in AAA. Norby, Castillo, and possibly Soto, Maton, and Nevin. Then top 15-20 prospects of 3B Wagner, and 3B Horvath, in AA. With the #22 and #32 picks in the draft to help restock. 

A team like the Marlins or White Sox could play Westburg at SS. At least in 2024. That maximizes his value. Having Westburg in a 4 man IF rotation wastes his value. 

It’s just resource allocation. Let the stud prospects start at 3B, SS, 2B. Let the back up types, back up. Trade from a strength to improve a weakness.

[oriolediehard]

Before Bradish injury I would've voted No and with Bradish and Means injuries I vote Yes. We desparately need pitching and we need a good start to the season to keep up with the Rays and Yankees.  If the Yankees have a healthy Rondon and Cortes they will be much better than last year.  Tampa may be a little worse than last year after trading their ace to the Dodgers.

[OrangeTurtle]

Luzardo, Scott, Bell, Meyer

For

Westburg, Cowser, Mountcastle, Irvin

Who says no? Mountcastle is from FL and gives Marlins a long term piece at 1B. We take on whatever else they owe Bell for this final season before FA to lessen what we give up (as in, none of the big 3).

Irvin helps them replace innings this year.

[sportsfan8703]

Here’s how it would look,

OD through day 9 of Season,

1. Holliday 2B L,

2. Adley C S

3. Gunnar SS L

4. Santa RF S

5. Mounty 1B R

6. O’Hearn DH L

7. Hays LF R

8. Mullins CF L

9. Urias 3B R

McCann, Mateo, Hilliard, Maton

Game 10+

1. Holliday 2B L

2. Adley C S

3. Gunnar SS L

4. Santa RF S

5. Mounty R 1B

6. O’Hearn DH L

7. Mayo 3B R

8. Mullins CF L

9. Hays LF R

McCann, Mateo, Hilliard, Mateo

AAA - Norby, Maton, Soto, Nevin, Castillo(of course they all might not clear waivers.)

AA - Wagner, Horvath

2024 Draft - #22, #32

2025 Draft - #30, #31(Holliday ROY), #32 Burnes Comp Pick, Comp pick B

We have plenty of depth in AAA/AA and plenty of future draft picks to back fill SS.  

I call Holliday up on OD and put him in the best spot to win ROY. Mayo comes up after 9 days, we get 7 years of control, and it’s unlikely he finishes top 2 in ROY. If he finishes top 2 in ROY we should be doing backflips and have 100+ wins. 

Edited February 17 by sportsfan8703

[Sanfran327]

I'm not sure why we keep seeing people penciling Holliday into 2b when we know that 3b is Gunnar's better position and that SS is Holiday's better position. That puts Westburg at 2b, which I think is probably his best as well (or needs to become his best due to the previous statement) and Mayo becomes the 1b of the future. Like most others, I don't think we'll see Mayo in Baltimore all that soon, so both Mounty and O'Hearn have some time to sink or swim. Does make it a little curious that O'Hearn's deal has a 2nd year option though.

I like Mountcastle just fine and O'Hearn was a great story last year, but as the other thread from a while back suggests, this scenario eventually makes O'Hearn the odd man out since that probably means that Mountcastle and Kjerstad form a DH platoon unless (hopefully more like until) HK proves he's a good enough hitter to bust through any splits.